When Happiness Doesn't Work
by AnotherPerson5
Summary: Glee, Brittany/Santana. "The reason Brittany is so sweet and nice is because she has Santana to take all her anger out on." Another prompt from Glee Angst Meme. All ye who seek fluff need not enter.


**A/N: Another prompt from the Glee Angst Meme. The prompt was -**_The reason Brittany is so sweet and nice is because she has Santana to take all her anger out on. Santana puts up with it because she loves the person Brittany is after she's done beating her. Bonus if the reason Santana starts beating people up/being a bitch in the first place is so that nobody asks when she shows up to school with marks. _

**A/N2: Disclaimer: Abuse, swearing, violence, language. Not a happy fic.**

~*~  
"You're so pretty," Brittany whispers into the shell of Santana's ear softly, fingertips tracing lazy patterns over the reddened flesh of her back. Lovely liquid roses and blooms of purple pansies, buried deep into warm brown flesh, "Like a garden." Brittany smiles, burying her nose in the other girl's hair, frowning and wiping away the smears of blood on the hem of Santana's skirt.

"Yeah." Santana whispers back, a sob catching in her throat and making her voice hoarse

"Say it…please?"

"Say what, B?"

"That it's pretty."

"B…"

Nails, nails in flesh and cold feet wrapping around Santana's ankles, anchoring her tightly to the bed and atop Brittany, "Say it."

Santana closes her eyes, "It's pretty, just like a garden."

"And you'll never let Puck play in my garden again will you?"

"No."

"Good." Brittany sighs and then her touch is light again, stroking in all the right places instead of teasing all the wrong ones.

~*~  
When she wakes up Brittany is sitting on the edge of the bed with a stuffed elephant. They're both wearing dark shades and toothy grins.

"Look what they were selling at the gas station. It totally sings too." She presses it's trunk and the elephant starts to sing "Living La Vida Loca" which are the first Spanish words that Brittany ever learned and also their unofficial song. Santana sits up in Brittany's bed, trying not to smile. Because tryouts were last week meaning she has to break in the newcomers today and she can't really be head bitch in charge if she's thinking of singing elephants and giggles like warm honey set to music.

But then Brittany sets the elephant down and reveals a cup of caramel macchiato with a lot more smiley faces and hearts than a cashier would think to draw and she forgets that McKinley High even exists.  
"I asked if they could put sprinkles on it to match Elphie but they just stared at me."  
"Was Elphie with you when you went in?"  
Brittany frowns in thought for a moment, "Yes?"  
Santana hides her smile by taking a sip of the drink, "You're pretty adorable."  
"Duh." then she crawls on the bed towards Santana and presses her lips to the finger shaped marks blossoming around Santana's neck, "I love you, gorgeous girl."  
Santana closes her eyes, "I love you too, B."

And she means it.

~*~

_Santana Lopez was always taught to protect the people she loved at any cost. The eldest of three and the youngest of two the lesson was enforced constantly. When Jefe was tied to a pole and left there, her older brothers enlisted her help to hunt down the kids that did it. They found them goofing off in the park, twirling bats and laughing._

_"You get that one," Nathaniel pointed_

_"What if…what if he hits me?"_

_Nathaniel opened his mouth but Leo had answered, "Pain is nothing when it comes to those you love."_

~*~  
So it doesn't bother her when Brittany shoves her against the door a week later for shoving Kurt in a locker when Brittany told her to be nice to him. This isn't the person she fell in love with, but it's still the person she loves.

She lets Brittany beat her because the pain Santana feels is physical, but the kind Brittany feels is everything else. All the frustration, resentment and jealousy that builds in the blonde's lithe form throughout the week is let loose on her and she knows it's better this way. That so long as Brittany has Santana to hate some of the time the world can have Brittany to love all of the time.

~*~  
Sometimes she fucks up.

She doesn't pay attention and lets Kurt to talk her into wearing a low cut top for a performance and raises an eyebrow at the look of horror on Tina's face

"What?" she sneers

But the girl just points at the blemishes along her collar, "W-what happened?"

"I got into a fight with Karofsky." she says quickly, because he's not at school today and it's the first thing that comes to mind.

Before Tina can ask why, someone clears their throat loudly. Brittany is behind her, arms crossed,

"I have to go the bathroom." she says simply.

~*~  
Santana holds her cheek, staring up at the blonde who looks down on her, hands planted on her hips,

"Fix it."

Santana reaches out, rubs her thumb against Brittany's ankle, "I will baby."

The foot strikes out, landing firmly against the latina's chest and taking her breath away, "Fix it now! NOW NOW NOW NOW!" she shrieks

Santana scurries backwards, stumbling out of the bathroom and towards the parking lot.

~*~  
Karofsky is walking up his driveway, a pizza box in hand. His eyes start at her legs and work their way up. Santana bites on her lower lip and flicks her eyes from his face to the spot in front of her. He struts over lazily, smirking arrogantly

"Sup, Lopez?

"Nothing much," she takes a breath, readies herself, "I heard you had a thing for Brit."

"I have a bigger thing for you."

_Gross_, she tries not to shiver, curling a finger to bring him closer, "I have a thing for you too," she purrs

And like the lap dog that he is, he drops the pizza on the grass and presses himself tight against the fence. Expecting a kiss, he sputters when his mouth is greeted with Santana's fist instead. Before he can reel back she twists her other hand into his shirt and hits him again. And again and again until there's blood on her knuckles and even more on his face. Then for good measure she aims a kick between the posts and lets him crumble to the ground.

"Fuuuuck." he groans, arms jerking around sporadically trying to decide whether to defend his nose or groin from further harm. He compromises by cupping between his legs and tucking his chin into his chest to roll as far away from the fence as he can to prevent another attack.

Santana is gone by the time he regains his vision.

~*~  
Brittany says that if they're called butterfly stitches they should at least be yellow before kissing Santana's bruised knuckles with something close to reverence. Santana nods, ignoring the slivers of pain slicing through her wrist so that Brittany can continue to kiss and caress it until she falls asleep.

"Pretty girl," she murmurs almost to herself as she slides a leg between Santana's and snuggles close, kissing a line through the mottled daisies that peak past the black and blue like sunflowers at dusk, the areoles of Santana's nipples tightening and shifting like dark clouds, "like Santana winds."

"You mean Santa Ana?"

"No," she smiles, "Because you make things better instead of worse."

~*~  
The next day at school the story is that Karofsky told someone he made an unwelcome pass at Brittany, Santana heard it and jumped him after school. He got a few licks in but for the most part got his ass kicked. By the time he's recovered enough to protest the story nobody believes him and thinks he's just trying to gain some of his dignity back by insisting he never put the moves on someone in Glee.

Mike doesn't show up to Glee and Matt whispers to the others out on the bleachers that it's because he doesn't want to be in the same room as Santana. Schuester announced that she was officially no longer allowed to be paired up with her friend until she could control her jealousy. Mike had been exchanging skeptic looks with Matt and the others when Schuester further announced that Mike would be Brittany's new partner.

"I'm dead meat," he'd grumbled to Matt while walking out of the choir room, " Have you seen the new dance number? She put Karofsky in the hospital for wanting to touch Brit, what happens when she sees _me_ actually do it."

~*~  
Beneath the bleachers Brittany presses Santana's face against the posts, biting down the back of her neck, "You didn't fix things…not really."

"I'm sorry."

"Now we can't have sleepovers…or ice cream after school or secret girlfriend kisses." The bites stop, "I hate you." she says softly

She knows better than to protest. Knows better than to say that she did fix it, they're still together and she'll threaten whoever the hell she has to to trade partners. Because Brittany knows it, when they got the news all she did was pout for a moment, glance at Santana and then start talking to Mike about practicing the routine. But Santana had seen pain in that glance, sadness and roses turning brown with too much sun.

She lets herself be twisted around, the wind rushing around them covering up the sound of palm against skin, her jacket dulling the thuds of Brittany's fists against her chest. Slow, calculated punches while Brittany glares at her, watching each flicker of pain that she needs to see.

"You're so mean, S," punch, "How did you get so mean?" slap, "You make me hurt so much."

A tear falls in the space between them, because now Santana is in pain. She slams her head back against the pole exposing her neck to the fingers slowly pulling down the zipper of her coat. Brittany is smiling when her thumbs press down on Santana's wind pipe, and as she slips into unconsciousness Santana is smiling too.

~*~  
The Lopez's learn from an early age that sometimes you have to suffer to protect the ones you love, _including yourself_. But Santana was too busy falling in love to hear that part.


End file.
